For Whom the Twilight Falls
Chapter 10 - The Changeling Change
“Queen Midnight,” the changeling prostrated himself before the dark alicorn who was looking out of the window. “Reports from our spies. Princess Chrysalis-”
“She is not your princess anymore, changeling,” Midnight’s cold voice replied. “Your queen stripped her of her titles.”
“Y-yes. C-chrysalis has started a revolution within the changelings in Ponyville.”
“Crush the revolution, then,” Midnight sounded unconcerned. “Kill them all. Break them all. I see no reason why you need to inform me.”
“C-chrysalis is-”
“Queen Arach’s daughter? Yes. But even as that may be, my reign is concrete. Supreme. Any disturbances and uprisings will be put down. Kill every revolting changeling. This is a direct order. Failure to obey will result in execution.”
“She is-!” Midnight’s horn glowed, and Abdomen spoke no more.
“Who’s next in line as the deputy?” her voice never changed tone. It never got angry, nor happy. Just cold efficiency.
“M-me, your Highness,” the nervous voice of Stinger came as she moved forward and knelt before Midnight. “I-I apologize for Abdomen’s insolence-”
“Silence. You will follow my orders. Put down the revolution. I will inform your Queen myself.” Midnight finally turned away from the window and looked at Stinger. “Your Queen will pay for Abdomen’s mistakes, as he has done. She needs to learn that to rule, is to make sure your subjects do not question your decisions. You may spare the ex-princess. But she is to be taken in forcibly and shown the error of her ways. The rest? Kill them all.”
“O-of course, your Highness.” Stinger stammered.
“Go. Inform your brethren to put the revolution down. Should I hear that any of you disobey me,” her eyes flashed with a glint of an emotion Stinger could not discern. “Your Queen will die. She is safe for now, but will not be if you disobey my orders. Am I clear?”
“Crystal, your Highness.” Stinger stammered, then flapped her wings, once, twice, and was gone, buzzing out of the throne room’s doors.
“Clean the mess up,” Midnight said as she turned back to the window. “A head detached from their body is not a decoration fit for my throne room.”
As the maids hastened to follow her order with paled faces, the dark eyes of Abdomen still stared at Midnight, his surprised expression still on his face. He didn’t move.
How could he, when his head had been separated from his body?
“Let me get this straight,” Sombra pursed his lips as he leaned back into a chair. “You need six pure gems.”
“Emphasis on the pure,” Luna confirmed. “Radiant was very insistent on it.”
“Unfortunately, a jeweler in a town this far from the cities does not stock such gems, otherwise, I would not hesitate to give you the six,” Sombra sighed. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Luna, Celestia.”
Luna’s face fell, crestfallen, but Celestia didn’t give up. “Is there another way we can acquire six pure gems?”
Sombra tilted his head, his forehead scrunched up as he thought. “I believe…there could be. There are many abandoned mines within the Everfree Forest. If I was able to find one of them, the gems would be within reach.”
“The Everfree?” Discord popped into existence. “Absolutely not. Not without me. Not now.”
Sombra barely flinched, even as the other three jumped. “Good afternoon, Discord. Would it kill you to knock just the once?”
Discord threw himself onto his back, floating in mid-air. “Ah, what’s the fun in that, Sombrero, old chap?”
“It’s Sombra, Discord,” he said with an ever-suffering sigh. “Discord, meet—”
“We’ve already met,” Luna interrupted, getting over her shock. “We had ice cream together.”
“And I saved ‘em from Jake’s stomach,” Discord supplied helpfully as he summoned a stick of candy floss and started wolfing it down. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
Luna couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, yeah, thanks, Discord.”
“I can make the trip with Discord by sunset,” Sombra said as he straightened from his seat. “I’ll just need to grab all the tools and items we need, and I should be able to get those gems for you three.”
Celestia opened her mouth to thank Sombra, but Chrysalis raised a hoof.
“Why are you doing this for us?” Chrysalis tilted her head. “You have nothing to gain, and everything to lose by going into a forest as cursed as the Everfree. What do you stand to gain from this?”
“Your smiles and everyone else’s,” Sombra chuckled. “See, Equestria has been nothing but kind to me ever since I moved here from the Crystal Empire. I’ve always tried to give back to the community, do whatever I can to repay the kindness of the ponies who helped me when I came here with barely anything. Besides, this is to save Equestria, right?”
Celestia frowned. “We said nothing—”
He made a rolling motion with one of his forehooves. “I connected the dots. The legend about Midnight being true, and all the other legends that have been thrown around in Pale Flame’s books. If I help, I’m helping to overthrow a tyrant who has set much fear over Equestria. If I help, I’m helping to bring back one of the greatest rulers Equestria has ever had. Am I correct?”
“Yes,” Luna admitted as she nodded her head. “We need the gems to house the Elements of Harmony. And once we get the gems, and find the bearers for the Elements, then we’ll have the weapon we need to defeat Midnight once and for all. Then we can finally return Equestria to what it was before Midnight returned.”
“Careful,” Sombra warned. “Planning a coup is one thing, but if you attempt it and fail…”
He didn’t complete his sentence. He didn’t need to.
“We won’t fail,” Celestia promised as Luna faltered. “Equestria deserves to be lively, happy, and full of joy. Equestria deserves its rightful rulers and the path to move forwards into the future. We’ll finish it. And then once we restore Princess Sunset to the throne, we’ll make sure you get recognition for what you’re doing for us.”
“I don’t need recognition,” Sombra laughed lightly. “I just need your promise that you’ll be careful. I don’t mind risking myself - Discord’s there to protect me. But if you face off against that dark alicorn…you’ll need more than just a few friends or draconequus.”
“I don’t know about that,” Discord mused. “What if I swamp her with a ton of ice cream?”
“Not going to work,” Sombra rolled his eyes. “She can teleport or use shields.”
“Aw. Bummer.”
“How did you two meet, anyway?” Luna asked, curious.
“When Discord first came to Ponyville, I was the one to provide him some lodgings to hide out for a bit,” Sombra explained. “I didn’t mind that he was on the run. I could empathize with not fitting in. And he was harmless. Mostly. He did keep switching out my sugar for salt.”
Discord laughed. “Good times!”
Sombra sighed. “He eventually moved out for the Everfree, but I’ve been providing him with whatever necessities he needs when he didn’t have enough chaos magic to magick in stuff he needed to survive.”
“In short, he’s been extremely generous to me,” Discord added helpfully. “And in return, I provide gems for him to sell now and then. The Everfree’s full of ‘em, what with all the abandoned mines.”
Luna nodded. “I’m glad we met you, Sombra. You’re a really good pony.”
Sombra shrugged. “I just try to be the best I can. Of course, I’m known now and then to be a little prideful and arrogant, but I’ve been working on that with interacting with others.”
“It’s been mostly tempered.” Discord supplied.
“Well, you two seem to have things under control,” Chrysalis nodded as she stood up. “Us three need to go back, check in with Princess Sunset. Good luck with the Everfree Forest?”
“Ah, luck,” Discord chortled. “Don’t need it. Keep it for yourself.” He snapped his talons, and a four-leaved clover floated over to Chrysalis, who took it with a surprised expression. “You’ll need it more than I do, facing off against the tyrant head-on.”
“O-of course,” Chrysalis tucked the four-leaved clover into her bag. “I’ll treasure it.”
Discord winked. “Good luck, Queen Chrysalis.”
With that, he and Sombra winked out of the room, teleporting away.
“Wait,” Chrysalis frowned. “Queen?”
“Yes, Queen,” Flurry said as she stirred the cup of coffee. “You declared a new hive. You declared yourself a rival of your own mother, making yourself the queen of your own hive. A thousand years ago, an old friend of mine, Queen Ocellus, explained to me the rules and customs of you changelings. You’ve essentially declared war against your mother by splitting off a new hive.”
Chrysalis’s face paled. “I- I didn’t mean to-”
“Do not worry,” Sunset said with what seemed to be a great effort. “We’ll all be supporting you. In more ways than just physically.”
“I only have, what, fifty-two changelings at my side?” Chrysalis fretted. “And the hive has thousands!”
“You’ve got this, Chryssy!” Celestia wrapped her in a hug. “Numbers don’t mean anything. Just give ‘em the same speech you did to us ponies - and wham, they’re on your side and we can show Equestria changelings aren’t as heartless as they think!”
Chrysalis smiled wanly. “Thanks, Celestia.”
“Oh, call me Tia,” Celestia grinned. “And call Luna Loony.”
“Hey!” Luna protested. “That’s not nice—”
“Loony,” Philomena said helpfully. “Would you mind helping me pluck one of my broken feathers? I can’t reach it with my beak.”
Luna groaned, and let out an ever-suffering sigh.
Chrysalis giggled at the sight. “You two really are sisters.”
Celestia laughed and gave her little sister a bump on the shoulder. “We’ve always been like this since we were able to talk. Nothing better than some sisterly rivalry, is there?”
Chrysalis nodded. “The love I feel radiating from you two…it’s so powerful.”
Celestia smirked. “Well, can’t deny that—”
The door to the library slammed open, and a changeling by the name of Feeler buzzed in, panting. “My Queen! Trouble! Problems! Disaster!”
“Speak clearly,” Chrysalis said kindly. “And I’ll see if I can help you out, Feeler.”
“You don’t need to help me,” he panted. “You need to help us all.”
Chrysalis frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The changeling hive is headed here. And at the forefront, General Pharynx is leading the charge. They’re showing a banner of no mercy. They’re here to put down our new hive.”
Chrysalis’s face turned white. “W-what?!”
Everyone turned to look at Feeler simultaneously, and then as if by some unspoken agreement, all of them rushed out of the library to look in the direction of Canterlot.
Hundreds of changelings were buzzing towards Ponyville, a black cloud on the horizon that was about to descend and devour the small town.
“Oh, buck,” Chrysalis whispered as she saw the black cloud of changelings in the distance. “What have I done?”
Midnight tapped the orbs with her horn again.
Nothing.
She smiled. Good. The Elements of Harmony weren’t waking up anytime soon.
Then she looked at the four slightly glowing stone orbs and scowled.
They hadn’t chosen their Bearers yet, she was certain of that. If they had, they would be glowing much more fiercely. However, she was getting a little concerned. In the morning, only three of the five orbs were glowing. But in the afternoon, just after tea time, the fourth had lit up, casting a red glow over the walls.
Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, and Generosity were alive. They had not chosen their bearers yet, but this could change if she didn’t do something about it.
She could just destroy the Elements. That was the safest bet.
Or not. If she did destroy the stone orbs, they could just simply find new vessels. Harmony didn’t work that way. Better to keep them close to her.
She laughed dryly. Yesterday night, she had gone through the memories she took from Sunset. And found plans to defeat her with the Elements. Now, that wouldn’t do.
She had found the wall of vines.
She didn’t bother with that, simply leaving the cavern and heading to where she knew the back of it was.
Using copious amounts of magic, she blasted a hole through the rock and stone, forcing her way into the cavern. The vines had noticed her intrusion and had moved to stop her, but before they could, she had already levitated the five orbs that were lying at the base of the crystalline tree and brought them with her as she teleported away.
Now, she had the Elements in her vault. They wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. If Sunset still tried to go ahead with her plan using her students, all they would find was an empty cavern with just a useless tree and vines. Oh, and the giant hole in the back of the cavern. And she wouldn’t be giving them any challenges herself. She knew that overcoming the challenges was what woke the Elements up to choose their Bearers.
She looked outside, and her horn lit, dragging the sun down for sunset, and slowly pulling up the moon.
Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead as she did so, straining with the effort of raising and lowering both celestial bodies at once. She was…the Alicorn of Magic! How was it this hard to…lower and raise two celestial bodies? It was as if they knew there were supposed to be two alicorns raising and lowering the sun and moon and were struggling against her control.
Or it was that she had grown weaker.
No. Impossible.
If anything, she had grown stronger.
It was her getting used to raising and lowering the sun and moon again, she reasoned. Midnight Sparkle couldn’t be weak. She just had to get used to it, as Sunset did.
She scowled.
Sunset had raised and lowered the moon herself for a thousand years.
She wasn’t weaker than that weak alicorn. She could do this.
With a shout of effort, she finally brought the moon above the horizon.
She was breathing heavily now, panting.
Then she composed herself.
It wouldn’t do now for the ruler of Equestria to look weak. She straightened her body up, and locked the orbs back into the chest she had designed for them.
Then she trotted out of her vault on the top of the tower Sunset’s beloved students lived in.
How ironic.
That she had fashioned their room into her very own vault to keep her valuables.
She laughed to the skies, her earlier fatigue forgotten.
And everyone who heard the laugh hid away, shying away as the mad alicorn trotted down the halls. For none wanted to face her.
All except the grinning lavender unicorn in her mind.